The dog, the donkey, surely they know they are alive.
Who would argue otherwise?...
What about the sunflowers?...
Listen, all you have to do is start and there'll be no stopping....
And, speaking of stones, what about the little ones you can
hold in your hands their heartbeats so secret
so hidden it make take years
before, finally you hear them?
In the recent interview with Mary Oliver, she was asked what she had done with her one wild and precious life. She responded, "I used up a lot of pencils...... What I have done is learn to love and learn to be loved. That didn't come easy. And I learned to consider my life an amazing gift. Those are the things."
The subtext of what I believe she has done with her life, as this poem suggests, is to listen so that she could see, hear, feel, and know love.
If we listen hard enough I believe that not only will we find beauty everywhere, but also love. I don't know which comes first or which might be causal, I only know that as I listen in the night, the barred owl asks, "Who loves for you?"
May I answer, "I do." May we answer, "We do." Loving is after all in our hands.
How do you listen to love?
I have always enjoyed, admired, felt humbled and soothed by Mary Oliver's poetry.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is the first of hers that I read and felt immediately drawn to her philosophy and attitude towards people and life. The inherent balance that nature provides to any form of life is for us to discern and, as you rightfully mention, to reflect upon. I appreciate and feel glad about your work here, about the effective way you are trying to spread and share a sense of life that is sublime, strong and magical all at the same time.
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